Month: August 2016

Football practice had ended and it was 8:30 as I drove home.  The start of another season of volunteer coaching.  The high school athletes and coaches energize me.  Optimism, organization, and opportunity to give back to a sport that positively influenced my life.

Usually if my “work day” ended at 8:30 I raced to “my chair” chased any interlopers off it and chilled, grabbed the remote. My family heckles me because I like to scan the guide and I am in no rush to settle in on a program to watch.

Not tonight and not after a practice and for sure not after chasing a rattle snake off the property the night previous. The rattle snake incident kind of stopped progress in the ‘straighten up and put away’ department last night so there was plenty to do.

The evening was perfect a glowing red sunset a light breeze and 72 degrees as the sun set.  Mosquitoes were the only opponent and their bite was far less threatening or annoying compared to a rattle snake.  Funny how your perception changes with experiences you endure.

I rolled up the hoses, watered the plants, added chemicals to the pool and covered it.  All the while cautiously looking at the ground for an unwanted visitor. NO SNAKES by the pool.   A good night, the only bites were mosquitoes.  For some reason that seemed successful.

I went to my truck to get my brief case (backpack now) and strolled triumphantly through the garage to enter the house.  An empty house, Sheila, my wife, was still on her trip and Abbey, the partner of last night’s adventure, was off to teach school in Cold Springs, MN. for a few days.

I looked forward to the quiet.  A quick microwave meal and my chair would be empty and waiting for me.  Yesterday’s story already written and the blog had started.  No more stories to worry about for about a week or two.

I entered the house and stepped back to the garage to shutoff the light and close the garage door and I saw it.  No way!  It slithered toward the door, I saw the head and knew right away it was not a rattle snake but for sure a bull snake.  I sprinted for the pool where I left my rake and ice chipper.   I left the weapons there for quick access if I needed them by the pool.  The battle ground  of the last snake adventure.  Again, I am running for weapons.  Rake and chipper in hand I must have been a sight.  A fat old dude running across the lawn with yard tools as weapons, spear like.  I was glad it was mostly dark so the neighbors could not see me or the Sheriff would get a call figuring I had gone over the top and ready for a rubber room.

Back to the garage and it had only moved a few feet.  Odd I thought.  I used the rake to hook it but the now he was on the move and heading for the steps to the house.  Great, I scared the animal in to my kitchen.  Quite the hunter and defender of the fort.  The second stab at him with the rake stopped him. He was about 4 feet long at least and he was trying to get behind the step and was succeeding.  I had rake in one hand and  the chipper in the other as the snake moved up the rake like climbing a rope.  I stepped on the tail and used the chipper to lever the big boy out of his hopeful place of safety.  It is surprising how much force it took to remove him and it was not working. I would get two inches,  reload and lose an inch.  There was no way I was going to let this thing into my house.  I reached down and grabbed the tail and pulled and pulled and eventually it relented  I dropped my ice chipper to the ground and quickly separated the head from the body.  So much for a relaxing night.

I was in the process of disposing of the body when I opened the door and hiding near the frame was a mouse.  Ok what next?  I grabbed my death rake and disposed of him as well.

When I finally was able to reach my chair I thought why all of a sudden are there so many snakes?

I have lived here for 26 years and had only a handful of encounters. I thought about it.

If I was hunting snakes, I would not be able to see two possible trophy snakes in back to back days if they were white tails.  Am I just lucky? Then it came to me.  Luck has very little to do with seeing game if you do your homework and plant a food plot.

What is different this year compared to the 25 other years?  A late flood, high water from the Mississippi has pushed all the animals to higher ground.  We live on a sand hill overlooking the Mississippi.  A pattern change for sure, I see it all the time when hunting.

What else? Food.  For the first time we put out solar lights around our pool.  Light equal bugs, bus equal frogs, frogs equal snakes.  Food plot food chain.  That explained the rattler.  The bull snake was certainly hunting the mouse, that when I saw him was paralyzed with fear.  He did not want to move in fear of being detected and becoming a Bull snake snack.  I have bird food and dog food in the garage in open pails.  Mice eat grain, snakes eat mice.

The food chain food plot.  A chain that needs to be broken at my house.  I am getting too old for this.

At my limit.

Mark

P.S. Did I mention in my last article the another reason why Abbey was so noisy?  When I ran into the garage to get the death rake and killer chipper a Bat flew past her head?  She hates bats. I feel like I live in a zoo.

 

Well, if this was Elk season you would know how this day ended.  But it is not.  It is Sunday July 31st.  A quiet Sunday.  No events, no games, nothing scheduled. Relaxing, an unusual sit back and let the day happen type of day.

The family was asking questions about when I was going to start this blog thing.  I said, “August  would be good.”

August was always the time that my interest in hunting peaked, town team baseball was winding down and I buying  hunting magazines on the road trip on the way to upcoming fall football games. .

So, Sunday July 31st was staring me right in the face.  I decided to grab a sprayer and spray some weed killer on the beans in one of the food plots.  Innocent enough.  Walking the rows of beans that needed the help, I thought what is so interesting about this blog?  Why would people want to read this?  My first thought is some people might enjoy the peacefulness of it, I sure do. Another though was seeing some of the soybeans already eaten to the ground by the deer was fun.  People who hunt know that working on  food plot is not exciting but it is rewarding in its own way.  No adrenaline rush, just a walk with a mission.  And so that is where my entry of blogging was going to end, at the end of the bean plot,  but my day was not complete at the end of the last row.

The day was winding down and I had snuck out to set another camera on a different food plot.I decided then to take an evening swim.  A nice relaxing close to a nice relaxing day.  My daughter,Abbey, joined me but she opted for the hot tub not the pool.  I settled in the pool. The sun was setting and it was a very peaceful evening.  The theme for the day for sure.  Abbey had and enough and said she was going in. I said. “ I will be right behind you in about 15 minutes, I will try not to drown.”

I left the pool and started to pick up, moving floating items off the pool and to a designated storage area near the hot tub.   Note my designated storage area (Note: not the ideal storage space by my wife. She prefers I do a better job of securing the items.  That was just for the record. )

I walked with my hands full to the edge of the concrete and gave the “floaties” a toss. Now you understand why this is not up ‘to code’ so to speak in the clean up hand book.  But it worked tonight.  Sheila was off flying for American Airlines and all I had to do was put the items close to the right area for day.   After the gentle toss  I heard the hiss of insects an odd hiss not quite right I thought. But it did not register as alarming, just annoying really.

I went to get another batch of ‘floaties” and deposit them in the temporary resting spot and I froze.  Dropped the items and sprinted to the house yelling for Abbey.  “Get your camera! Get your camera!  (phone).”  I was excited, alarmed and curious.  “Come with me”, I yelled. “ I need you to take a picture of this huge snake.”  I armed myself with a rake from the garage and marched to the pool wondering where it had slithered off to.  It was going to be easy to spot. it was a good 4 to 5 feet long and fat, really fat , like well fed recently eaten type of snake fat.

Abbey, a 23 year old girly girl, reluctantly came along.  Good thing snakes  number one sense is not hearing because Abbey proved why she is seldom , like never invited on hunting trips.  She is a beautiful young lady ,  but quiet is not in the description paragraph that makes her beautiful.  She was very loud and kind of scream talking. If she was texting I am sure there was an OMG, or some other abbreviation or Emogie in the conversation. All you parents with young ladies know exactly what I am talking about.  The rest of you can just be thankful.

I proceeded confidently with rake in hand to get this big boy off my concrete and possibly in the dirt if it came to that.  My first attempt at snagging it failed and it fell off the edge of the concrete next to the recessed hot tub steps.  An easy target,  I slammed the rake onto the coiled snake a Bull snake,  I had experience dealing with these snakes a semi frequent visitor to the neighborhood.  The pile of snake was bigger than I expected and the rake bounced off kind of like hitting a bouncy ball with a hammer.  My wrist stung as the force of concrete stopped the energy generated from my excitement. What a wimp I thought.  I watched the snake coil and strike at the rake.  Then I heard it that odd hissing again.  But now I could see where it was coming from and it was not hissing at all.  It was a rattle.

An indescribable feeling came over me.  A mixture of fear, adrenaline rush, and a wake up call ran through me.  This is serious because this is NO BULL snake.  I was less than a quality alpha hunter from this point on and the snake retreated to a corner of the recessed area I could not get my rake into.  There was a reason big animals get big.  He out smarted me.  This will be a common theme to my blog.

I was left to making calls to the Sheriff’s office to see if they would remove it.  They passed it on to the local DNR wardens.

I was happy to communicate with someone who was an expert.The DNR confirmed it as a rattle snake.  They also confirmed I was NOT to kill it.  It is protected in Wisconsin.

It was NO BULL snake and that is how my quiet Sunday ended and my first blog article started.

Thank You Abbey for the pictures you are a brave young lady.  Brave , not quiet.

See a video of the rattler here.   The picture of the snake near the hot tub shows my wet footprints in relation to the snake.

-At My Limit
Mark